There are a variety of joint-degenerative and joint-damaging diseases, such as various forms of arthritis and osteoporosis, that have important health and quality-of-life consequence to patients. Since these diseases tend to be progressive, it is also important to be able to monitor change in joint or bone deformity, for example, in monitoring treatment methods.
A variety of biochemical and physical analysis tools are available for monitoring bone and joint resorption and degeneration conditions. These methods suffer various limitations relating to ability to pinpoint and accurately quantitate joint-degenerative conditions in an automated or substantially automated way.